It’s been almost a year since the Muerta release and it might be time to start hyping up Ringmaster. New Dota 2 hero releases are always exciting, since they always introduce new, unique mechanics, so today we would like to speculate about the upcoming character and what their kit might look like.
The official splash art for the hero teaser has Ringmaster front and centre. Several things immediately meet the eye. First of all, Ringmaster is Mechanical. We don’t know whether it is a mech suit piloted by one of the Keen Folk, like Timbersaw, Clockwerk and Tinker or some sort of a possessed contraption, but given the high pitch of the narrator in the teaser and the generally unhinged tone, we skew towards the former.
We also feel like Ringmaster is going to be an Intelligence hero. There are fewer Intelligence heroes in the game right now, compared to other attributes. He also holds what looks like an Oracle’s orb in his hands on the splash art. While it might not mean much, given the theme of the hero about how he is forecasting the actions of his enemies to trap them, we feel like he is going to be a ranged Intelligence hero focused on crowd control.
Finally, it is impossible not to draw parallels to HoN’s Puppet Master. They have very similar vibes, though a straight HoN to Dota port is very unlikely. That said, we wouldn't be surprised to see a taunt-like effect from Ringmaster, similar to Puppet Show in HoN or Dota’s Winter's Curse.
Returning to the mechanical and baiting themes, we have this shot from the trailer, showcasing Axe running after what ended up being a lure. Luring and baiting mechanics are typically hard to implement in online games, since you are playing against real people, who will quickly realise something’s off if a neutral creep starts running wildly, so we aren’t sure how much of this shot has to do with an actual Hero mechanics, and how much of it is flavour.
That said, we wouldn’t be surprised if Ringmaster could create some uncontrollable units. Uncontrollable for two main reasons: lore and teaser-wise they look like spring toys, which typically can’t be controlled after the initial wind-up. And we also don’t think he is going to be a micro hero — they aren’t necessarily popular for the vast majority of players and Valve have heavily been prioritising player fun in new characters.
Perhaps a mechanic where Ringmaster takes over a neutral camp could be a thing, we are seeing a mechanical Kobold Foreman after all. That said, we have no idea how it would work and what kind of effect it could provide. Though having constant vision over a neutral camp does sound interesting.
We also have this shot with the “hero collecting” narrative. Returning to the splash art, where we see Ringmaster holding Oracle’s Orb, an easy speculation is that trapping and killing enemy heroes allows him to use their abilities in some shape or form. Kind of like a more malicious Rubick. Borrowing enemy spells is also one of the most fun mechanics in the game.
Alternatively, it could just be a crowd-control or a banish effect, similar to Disruption or Astral Imprisonment. Then again, the latter two are not necessarily the most fun abilities in the game and can sometimes be disruptive to your own teammates, and as mentioned previously player fun feels like a priority.
There are also “clowned-up” heroes on the poster, perhaps they are the poor characters who have already been “collected”. Maybe “collecting” a hero steals part of their power and the only way to return it back is by killing Ringmaster? This would fit incredibly well with the idea of Ringmaster being an expert baiter, as it would create an incentive for the enemy team to target him.
Unfortunately, that is it for now. So far we only had one teaser of the hero and some Dota sense to guide us, but perhaps you have noticed something else? Valve like to hide some small details in their teasers and trailers and you can watch the full Ringmaster reveal here.
Discussing new Dota heroes as a group is always fun and engaging, so feel free to share your thoughts on what Ringmaster could be all about in the comment section below. Perhaps together we can land somewhere closer to the truth of what the hero might or might not be.
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Its gonne be probly a mid hero with a strong ganking phase. Similar to Invoker or Pudge. I predict hes gonne have ult that makes enemy heros fight with eachother like maybe Wivern
A lot of heroes who've had personas and arcanas have referenced some kind of mind control in some of their voice lines, which go unused. I propose Ringmaster will posses a similar ability, taking total control of an enemy hero and perhaps allowing them to attack their own allies, or if not, just take control of their movements temporarily.
If anyone has played Heroes of the Storm (yeah, that MOBA people forgot), Sylvanas had a similar ability which would briefly allow her to control the actions of an enemy, leaving the player originally controlling it helpless, if only for a few seconds. She could only make them move however, she couldn't order the victim to attack others.
Perhaps Ringmaster's ult would do something like this, and it could either be a channeling spell, or otherwise taking control would leave him greatly vulnerable, allowing the target's allies to attack him to break his hold on his victim.
The ball in the teaser poster is not an oracle ball. If you look at the art it is clearly a circus staff like most ring masters have. (You can see the long end of it under his arm he's just holding it in a weird way.)
based off the second picture, He could clear a camp then replace it with some damaging creeps once opposing side finishes it off. Like take damage instead of gold and exp
I'd pick brood here
There's a capture element here; I'm thinking the boxes can be set up as traps that pull in enemies. It's gotta be an ulti that takes control of enemies. If you have a hero that can use their ulti to deploy an enemy ulti stupidly, you've got something potent. The Tides and Silencers of the game would fear this, and it would be SUPER interesting.
that's not oracle's orb
thats his rod, like the ones ringmaster from circus uses
Axe chasing that toy kobold is definitely influenced by a single target force taunt spell then gets disarmed when the toy is destroyed.
mix between rubrick and natures prophet maybe
Not interested anymore unless they ever change the matchmaking system, sorry bro.
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he will probably have the ability to teleport 2 heros to fight each other like custom hero arena or what the custom game is called, "no hero can escape" would perfectly fit for that.
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xDddDXDXd
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Oh yea, there is a new hero coming sometime... We could use a meta shakeup as well. It is getting a bit stagnant as it is. We haven't seen major changes to the meta since last summer. Honestly can't remember when. The post TI updates have been quite lackluster, the items being the major modifier, but those only fit on some heroes and if they didn't fit your hero pool, it didn't change much. The post TI hero changes have been mostly tinkering with the numbers and not much more.
New hero is a good thing. But if he has a taunt ability and some sort of a box to capture heroes in, don't expect him to have any more cc abilities as those can get quickly out of hand... Unless they have really long cooldowns. Probably has a nuke or a farming ability, depending on whether he will be a core or a support hero. And maybe one passive ability... Who knows.
Metesis we had so many meta shakeups in 2023 that iv got no idea what are u talkin about. We got new map, new fountains, new neutral items, reworks of existing ones ect.
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I speculate this will drop on 12/31/24. The tournament schedules have totally warped the schedule of patch and content releases.
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i think its better to delete some heros than bring only new and new and new.
its so unbalanced at the moment. always same 20 heros get picked. delete earth spirit for example and nobody will miss him.
Puppet Master.
I think RingMaster is a universal hero mostly used as pos3 as an initiator.
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This aged like milk in terms of when the hero would be released